Pages

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–471

The photo above is that of the Dugway Proving Ground, a US Army facility in the state of Utah. On October 15, 1991, an an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray was detected over it.

As Wikipedia puts it: “The particle was traveling very close to the speed of light—assuming the particle was a proton, its speed was only about 1.5 femtometers (quadrillionths of a meter) per second less than the speed of light, translating to a speed of approximately 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 9951c. At that speed, in a year-long race between a photon and the particle, the particle would fall behind only 46 nanometres, or 0.15 femtoseconds (1.5×10−16 s); or one centimetre every 220,000 years.”

It also adds: “The speed of the particle, if it was a proton, is so high that it would experience relativistic time dilation by a factor of about 320 billion. At that rate, the particle could have travelled for the entire duration of the universe's existence while experiencing less than 16 days subjective time.”

Surprised scientists gave it a name that many may see as a nod to the Higgs-boson. What’s the name?

***

Two answers, and Ali seems to have not had the patience to read the full question. Santanu is correct, though. This is indeed the Oh-My-God particle.